Thursday, April 27, 2017

PHL banking on RE to hike power supply

The Department of
Energy (DOE) said it wants the share of renewable energy (RE) to increase by at
least 20,000 megawatts (MW) by 2040.

“It is vital in our
vision toward attaining 20,000 megawatts of renewable-energy capacities by
2040,” Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi said during the launch of the
Renewables Readiness Assessment (RRA) for the country.

RRA is a collaboration
among the DOE, International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) and other RE
stakeholders from both the public and private sectors.

The DOE chief said that
with the Philippine governments’ aggressive stance towards building RE capacities,
there is a “need to identify and analyze key challenges to further guide our
stakeholders in our policies, regulatory and institutional framework”.

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He said formulating RRA
involved research, interviews, focus group discussions and several
multistakeholder consultations.

The goal, he added, is
to provide a comprehensive and detailed analyses of the country’s RE profile in
order to recommend measures to deal with the pertinent issues in the industry.

Cusi said the
Philippine RRA will also contribute to a database of the status of renewables
readiness across member-countries of Irena.

The RRA is also meant
to serve as a forum with industry stakeholders to inform them on its results,
solicit their views in carrying out the recommendations and discuss
opportunities and challenges of the RE sector.

Irena is an
intergovernmental organization that supports countries in transitioning into a
sustainable energy future. It serves as the principal platform for
international cooperation and an avenue to explore other values of RE as it
promotes widespread adoption and sustainable use of all forms in the pursuit of
sustainable development.

“The DOE is committed
to provide a level of playing field among RE developers to assure the country
of its indigenous and sustainable energy for the consuming public,” Cusi said.

Meanwhile the Energy
Regulatory Commission (ERC) authorized two RE applicants to develop and own
their respective point-to-point limited facilities to connect to the Visayas
grid in line with the government’s drive to encourage generation
companies for alternative sources of electricity.

The ERC authorized
First Toledo Solar Energy Corp. (FTSEC) and Negros Island Solar Power Inc.
(Islasol) to connect its solar power plants, each generating 60 MW and 40.5 MW,
respectively.

Islasol will link its
solar power plant to the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) Cadiz
Substation, while FTSEC will be connecting directly to the NGCP Calung-Calung
Substation.

Islasol and FTSEC were
authorized by virtue of Section 9 of Republic Act 9136, or the Electric Power
Industry Reform Act [Epira] of 2001, which provides that “a generation company
may develop and own or operate dedicated point-to-point limited transmission
facilities that are consistent with the Transmission Development Plan [TDP],
Provided, that such facilities are required only for the purpose of connecting
to the transmission system, and are used solely by the generating facility,
subject to prior authorization by the ERC.”